


wait for the signal i'll meet you after dark

by notalone91



Series: LoserFest 2021 [11]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: High School, Idiots in Love, M/M, Promises, Sneaking Around, Sneaking Out, Teen Romance, The Kissing Bridge (IT), climbing in windows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:35:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29362611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalone91/pseuds/notalone91
Summary: When Richie shows up to climb up for the night, Eddie beats him to the chase and sneaks right out the open window and leads him on a midnight date.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: LoserFest 2021 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138544
Kudos: 25





	wait for the signal i'll meet you after dark

**Author's Note:**

> Day 11: Inspired By A Track From Evermore (Willow)

The lights in Eddie’s bedroom flicked on and off 3 times. Richie stamped out the butt of his cigarette and headed up the side yard and into Eddie’s open bedroom window. Instead, he was nearly knocked down the trellis by a falling backpack. “Here, take this, you’re a better climber than I am,” Eddie said, handing his boombox down to Richie without even the subtlest of explanations. “I had an idea and I want to do it before I lose my nerve.” When they reached the bottom, Richie lifting him down off the porch quietly, he nearly leaped into his boyfriend’s arms to kiss him. “Let’s go,” he said, taking his hand and leading him off down the street. 

“Not that I don’t appreciate the spontaneity, babe, but,” Richie said, panting as they ran through the streets of Derry, “it is almost one am and I just got off work, so can we slow down a little and you can tell me where we’re going?” He laughed a little, tugging Eddie back to a walking pace. “Unless your plan is far, because we could just go back and get my car?”

Eddie swung his backpack around and showed the contents to Richie. “It’s dark. I can’t see any of that,” he said. He probably wouldn’t have been able to see it even in broad daylight. He really needed new fucking glasses. 

“Then you’re just going to have to wait,” Eddie said. “I promise it’ll be worth your while.”

They talked as they walked, catching each other up on their nights. A group of kids had wrecked the movie theatre, so even though the last show let out at 11:30, Richie still had an hour’s worth of scrubbing to do. He had half a mind to swap all the Basic Instinct reels out with the leftover Beauty and the Beast ones. “That would teach them. I’ll let it go right up to the scene they’re looking for, she sits down, and BAM! Animated candlestick!” he laughed, tucking Eddie under his arm. 

Eddie tried to take a roundabout path. He didn’t want Richie to catch wise too soon. He told him all about his mother’s latest theory, that he had been exposed to so much secondhand smoke in Derry that it had stunted his growth and he had to have lung cancer and he should be homeschooled for their senior year. Richie had laughed. That was never going to fly. They’d figure out a way around that, just like they had when she had tried to convince him that he was shrinking and that he needed to return home for all of his meals so that she could monitor them.

What he never said to her was that Richie took better care of him than she had in a long time. Because, with Richie, he was allowed to be free. He was allowed to be himself.

They made it to their destination and Richie balked. “What are we doing here,” he asked, looking up at the covered bridge and the rest of Derry behind. 

“There are only two things that people do up here,” Eddie said smoothly as he reached into his bag for his dad’s old swiss army knife and the blanket. “Sucking face and carving names,” he added. 

Richie leaned in and kissed him deeply. Still, some years before, scared shitless with something to prove, Richie had come up there on his own. He smiled and looked down at his boyfriend. “Come over here,” he said, tugging him onto the opposite side of the bridge. He ran his fingers down the railing until his fingers hit it, a small R + E.

They stared at the initials in silence. “When did you do this?” Eddie asked, his back pressed flush against Richie’s front, arms wrapped around his middle. He hadn’t known anything about it. He’d even been up here after school today making sure he wasn’t going to get them lost and that there was room for stage two of his plan off to one side. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

With a sigh, Richie untangled himself from Eddie and hopped up on the top rail. “Couple summers ago,” he said quietly, kicking his feet. “After we won, I had a lot of feelings.”

“You still do,” Eddie said fondly, bracing Richie’s legs with his hands, silently praying he didn’t fall.

Richie laughed. “Yeah, well, I had already figured some stuff out, but after-”

“After what?”

He sighed and closed his eyes. He couldn’t believe he was going to tell him this. “After Bowers screamed at me in front of half the town for hitting on his cousin, which I wasn’t, but you were still on house arrest with your arm, Bill and Bev weren’t talking to me, Mike and Ben weren’t talking to anyone, and Stan was busy. I went to the arcade,” he explained, realizing how stupid the whole interaction really was. “I was playing Street Fighter with some guy I’d never met. I asked to play again, he freaked, said he wasn’t my boyfriend, and before I know it, Bowers is chasing me out, calling me a faggot and I’m in the middle of the park with the fucking clown breathing down my neck.” He hung his head, trying to avoid Eddie’s heartbroken stare. “By the time we came out the other end, I knew how I felt and it kind of felt like I knew what was important.” 

To say that was unexpected would have been an understatement. Eddie pulled Richie in close and arched up to try to kiss him. Richie leaned forward to meet him halfway. “So, I guess now would be a really bad time to say that I brought you out here to shove you off the bridge, huh?”

Cackling as he jumped to his feet, Richie wrapped Eddie in his arms and kissed him once more. “You wouldn’t because then you’d have to follow me down and you’d be too worried about scratches and breaks and shit.” They crossed back to where Eddie’s backpack was and sat on the ground, legs dangling off the side. “So, what was your plan here, Eds?”

“I mean, you kinda wrecked the first half,” he said, nudging him to the side. “I was going to make some sweeping gesture about how I wanted to be with you forever and shit,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Then, I was going to put some music on and we’d carve our names together, but you already took care of that, so at least Derry knows we were here and we were in love.”

Head bobbing from side to side, Richie answered, “I guess I like you, but love,” he said, curling his lip. “That seems like overkill.”

Eddie hopped up and grabbed his bag. “Well, I guess you didn’t want to find out about the second half because that’s only for people in love and if that’s not the case,” he said, leaning heavily into his words.

“Probably not,” Richie answered flippantly, reaching his hand out exaggeratedly, then pulling it back in an exaggerated psych-out. “I mean, I do have other stops to make on my way home tonight, so if this is going to take too long-”

“Are you gonna hold my hand or what?” Eddie interrupted, wiggling his still extended fingers dramatically.

With a big smile, Richie moved closer. “That’s my man,” he cooed. “So, what comes next?” 

He could never have expected, in a million years, to be led down the side of the guard rail and into the barrens. Eddie had rewired an old car jump box into a portable power source. He’d borrowed Christmas lights from everywhere he could think of and strung them from tree to tree. It was beautiful and sparkling and Richie was floored. Eddie laid out a blanket and opened the cooler he’d stashed at sunset before he’d gone home for the night. “Happy anniversary,” he said quietly. 

Richie struggled to come up with the date in his head, then let his mouth drop wide. “Our anniversary is Saturday, Eds.” 

“I know. But I wanted to surprise you,” he said, then caught him in another kiss. “Are you surprised?”

Struggling to come up with words, he said, “Yeah, I mean, I wasn’t-” he looked around, realizing, not for the first time, that he really did have the best boyfriend in the world. “How did you do this without any suspicion?”

Eddie maneuvered himself into Richie’s lap. “It took some doing, but it worked.” He was super proud of himself and he’d been waiting all night for Richie to get done work. “And, I have some goodies in my bag for later.” He nipped lightly at his boyfriend’s jaw. 

That was one of Richie’s favorite things about this newly emboldened Eddie. He was like a boy scout, always prepared. Especially at times when Richie would never, ever be prepared. They worked well like that. Pieces of one picked up where the other left off. They could bend to meet the other with practically no effort at all.

And he was in love. 

Hopelessly. Irrevocably. 

They used every one of Eddie’s plans and every second of their time to the best of their abilities, finally crashing into one another to sleep for an hour just before dawn. When the sun rose, they snuck back to Eddie’s as fast as they could and climbed into bed. Thanks to the godsend that was Summer break, they had nowhere to be until Richie’s shift that afternoon. Eddie’s mom was headed out and wouldn’t be back until the following night. Everything was perfect; as close to idyllic as he could imagine. When they woke up, a little closer to noon than Eddie was comfortable, he made them breakfast and brought it back up to his bedroom for them.

“You know, you’re gonna make it really hard for me to beat this for our actual anniversary,” Richie laughed, sitting up against the wall and taking the plate of eggs and sausage graciously. He leaned up and kissed Eddie, smiling. “But I think I’ll manage.”

Sitting in his sock drawer at home was his own plan for Saturday. A teeny, tiny bag held a small silver band with a knotted engraving and two small stones, one aquamarine and one sapphire. He and Bev had scoured for what he was refusing to call an engagement ring. That sounded like too much for them just yet. But it was something. He was still working his magic on the plans for the day, but he had off. He, Ben, Mike, and Bill had sured up the clubhouse some. They, wholeheartedly, meant Ben and Mike did all the work, he and Bill just handed them things and provided entertainment and moral support. There was a nightclub aura being worked out, but after seeing Eddie’s feat of lighting, he was really going to have to work on it fast. 

No matter what happened, he knew it would be perfect. It would be perfect because it was going to be just them.

Some 20 years later when he walks into a Chinese restaurant to meet friends he hardly remembers, he sees that same small ring on the pinky of a man he hardly recognizes and knows that he gave him that. That he has to stay and fight. And he needs to figure out what that ring means.


End file.
